Cal-Western Nurseries Names Khachigian-Ritchie VP/GM

Teresa Khachigian-Ritchie

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Teresa Khachigian-Ritchie was recently named vice president and general manager of Cal-Western Nurseries founded by her father, Luther J. Khachigian, 51 years ago. While Khachigian still serves as chief executive officer and secretary-treasurer of the corporation, he has handed over the day-to-day management and leadership to his daughter.

In her role, Khachigian-Ritchie will head-up a veteran Cal-Western management team, many of whom have been responsible for significant roles in the business for as much as, or more than 40 years. She joins Jesus “Chuie” Gutierrez, president and chief operating officer, who has been with the company for four decades.

“We have a great team in place to handle the many aspects of this nursery business, which specializes in growing grapevine rootings, table grapes, wine grapes, and walnut seedlings,” says Khachigian-Ritchie. “My job is to continue learning the business and keep things running smoothly as they have for so many years. Many of our current employees have been like part of the family as I was growing up.”

Besides managing people and human resource responsibilities, Teresa will focus on developing new business relationships. She will oversee and manage the growing domestic and international markets.

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Khachigian-Ritchie retired from Bank of America in December 2012. She accepted her full-time responsibilities at Cal-Western, effective this year. She says she’s “accustomed to handling everything in business from customer service and executing contracts, to collections.”

Cal-Western Nurseries started doing business in 1962, as a one-acre operation on leased ground with one part-time employee. Today, the company has expanded to approximately 1,200-acres devoted to general farming and nursery operations with more than 100 year-round employees. During the peak nursery season, they employ more than 200 seasonal employees.

Cal-Western Farming also operates a cold storage facility and a walnut dehydrator. They sell their wide array of nursery stock to farming companies around the globe.

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